Volume 44 - Article 17 | Pages 397–414
The distributional impact of COVID-19: Geographic variation in mortality in England
By Richard Breen, John Ermisch
demographic-research.44-17_ ocal_Authority_Districts__December_2016__Boundaries-shp (zip file, 32 MB)
readme.44-17 (text file, 2 kB)
Abstract
Background: By their nature, the impact of epidemics on mortality varies geographically, suggesting that the geographical impact of an epidemic implies a social impact.
Objective: To examine the association between two measures of the social composition of a local area and age- and sex-standardised Covid-19 and other mortality in the period 1 March to 31 July 2020. The measures are how deprived an area is and what proportion of its population is non-white.
Methods: Using spatial autoregressive regression we analyse geographical variation in age- and sex-standardised Covid-19 mortality among English local authorities between 1 March and 31 July 2020 in relation to measures of social composition, and we compare it with mortality from non-Covid sources in the same period, and with all-causes mortality in 2018.
Results: Areas with higher social deprivation have a higher Covid-19 mortality rate, but the association is much weaker than between social deprivation and mortality rates more generally. An area’s proportion non-white has a strong positive association with Covid-19 mortality, in contrast to a negative association with 2020 non-Covid and with 2018 mortality.
Conclusions: Covid-19 mortality is related to the social composition of areas in different ways than current non-Covid mortality or past mortality.
Contribution: The paper provides the first demonstration of the distinct distributional impact of mortality in relation to the Covid-19 virus by the social composition of areas in England.
Author's Affiliation
- Richard Breen - University of Oxford, United Kingdom EMAIL
- John Ermisch - University of Oxford, United Kingdom EMAIL
Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research
Educational reproduction in Europe: A descriptive account
Volume 41 - Article 49
English fertility heads south: Understanding the recent decline
Volume 45 - Article 29
Fertility expectations and residential mobility in Britain
Volume 35 - Article 54
Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s care work and employment in the Middle East and North Africa
Volume 51 - Article 15
| Keywords:
care work,
COVID-19,
Middle East,
North Africa,
women's employment
Trajectories of US parents’ divisions of domestic labor throughout the COVID-19 pandemic
Volume 51 - Article 12
| Keywords:
childcare,
COVID-19,
division of labor,
fathers,
gender,
housework,
mothers
Lessons from the pandemic: Gender inequality in childcare and the emergence of a gender mental health gap among parents in Germany
Volume 51 - Article 3
| Keywords:
COVID-19,
division of childcare,
exhaustion,
gender role attitudes,
loneliness,
mental health,
pandemic,
stress
Measuring short-term mobility patterns in North America using Facebook advertising data, with an application to adjusting COVID-19 mortality rates
Volume 50 - Article 10
| Keywords:
COVID-19,
data collection,
Facebook,
mortality,
North America,
short-term mobility
Immigrant mortality advantage in the United States during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic
Volume 50 - Article 7
| Keywords:
COVID-19,
immigrants,
mortality
Cited References: 3
Download to Citation Manager
PubMed
Google Scholar